The best restaurants for Father’s Day brunch in NYC

For three decades Keith McNally’s New York restaurants have defined effortless cool, generating the sort of overnight buzz—and long-running exclusivity—institutions are made of. McNally’s Minetta Tavern, a West Village relic reborn, may be the first iconic restaurant of postmillennial recession New York. The lovingly restored dining room is as nostalgic as the '21’ Club’s, setting a timeless, elegant stage for downtown brunching.

Blame talented toque April Bloomfield for the inevitable wait at this still-hopping West Village gastropub—a pioneer in the kind of meaty go-big-or-go-home grub that’s proliferated since the spot’s 2004 opening. The Pig still serves one of New York City’s best burgers, a rare patty heaped with intense Roquefort cheese and served with a tower of rosemary- and garlic-kissed shoestring fries. For brunch, seek out both classics (French toast with bananas and bourbon syrup, $17) and globally-inspired (sizzling sisig with jalapeño and egg, $17).

Chef Daniel Boulud doesn’t do decent, so-so or almost great. Even as he branches out around the world—with outlets in Palm Beach, Beijing and Vancouver—the perfectionist chef is forever tinkering with even his most venerable spots. Which is why it’s hardly surprising to discover that the food and service at DBGB improve week after week. Even in a city awash in unruly menus, DBGB’s stands out for its kitchen-sink scope. Until Boulud has the common sense to pare the thing down, you may want to come with a shortlist of desired dishes—and a preemptive idea of the sort of experience you’re after.

At this 159-seat Peruvian canteen and pisco bar in Chelsea, Peru native Jaime Pesaque serves upmarket Latin American plates: grilled hanger steak anticucho (skewers) with an aji panca glaze and rocoto salsa; corvina ceviche made with leche de tigre, sweet potato, corn and chilies; and slow-braised veal cheek with Peruvian corn cake. If you're in a rush, visit the casual offshoot, Latin Beet Kitchen, in the front of the dining area, instead. 

Some of the city's most popular restaurants serve food that satisfies on a visceral level—consistent, accessible, easy to like. Places where the music, crowd, drinks and space explain, as much as the menu, why it's packed every night. Which sums up precisely the instant and overwhelming success of Marcus Samuelsson's Harlem bistro, Red Rooster. The restaurant's global soul food, a "We Are the World" mix of Southern-fried, East African, Scandinavian and French, is a good honest value. But it's outshone here by the venue itself, with its hobnobbing bar scrum, potent cocktails and lively jazz.

Michelin-starred chef Polo Dobkin reimagines his former Dressler space with creative American plates (Chatham cod "Pil Pil," horchata-spiked semifreddo), while wife Stephanie Lempert (Al Di La Vino) dreams up herbal cocktails like the rosemary-tinged Ra Ra Rye.

Long before farm-to-table was more rule than exception, Jonathan Waxman was leading the produce-driven way. From 1984 to 1989, Waxman, with wine-expert partner Melvyn Master, introduced his then-exotic brand of California cuisine —nurtured under the great Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and at Michael’s in Santa Monica—to the Upper East Side via Jams, a cabernet-fueled clubhouse with easy elegance and a killer roast chicken. After nearly three decades—and a successful foray into rustic Italian (11-year-old Barbuto)—, Jams is back, and so is that famed chicken ($25).